IDC ICT Resources

Tony Wagner, Harvard Graduate School of Education, labels these "survival skills" as (1) critical thinking and problem solving; (2) collaboration and leadership; (3) agility and adaptability; (4) initiative and entrepreneurialism; (5) effective oral and written communication; (6) accessing and analyzing information; and (7) curiosity and imagination. Wagner proposes that schools use academic content to teach these skills at every grade level, and be accountable for a new standard of rigor.

According to the P21 Framework Definitions Document from May 2009, students should master the four following interconnected knowledge, skills and expertise in order to "succeed in work and life in the 21st century:"Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes: English, reading, foreign language, math, economics, science, geography, history and government AND global awareness, civic literacy, health literacy, and financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy.Learning and Innovation Skills: Creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration.Information, Media and Technology Skills: Information literacy, media literacy, and information, communications and technology literacy.Life and Career Skills: Flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility.

Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced. Services like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are oceans of personal minutiae — birthday greetings sent and received, school and work gossip, photos of family vacations, and movies watched.

In social networks, people can increase their defenses against identification by adopting tight privacy controls on information in personal profiles.

Yet an individual’s actions, researchers say, are rarely enough to protect privacy in the interconnected world of the Internet.

As educators shift from the traditional school methods of the lecturing and note taking, there is a need not to use technology as a means of supplemental education, but truly integrated.

Ways of thinking. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning Ways of working. Communication and collaboration Tools for working. Information and communications technology (ICT) and information literacy Skills for living in the world. Citizenship, life and career, and personal and social responsibility

Everyday, new technologies are invented that make old technologies, or old industries, completely unnecessary. The invention of the automobile destroyed the horse-driven carriage world, but replaced it with a new industry. But now, telecommuting could one day make personal transport irrelevant. Imagine a world full of people who work from home, order groceries online, take classes online, go shopping online… hmm. It seems that world is nearly here already. In that world, we wouldn’t need cars, or car makers, or garages. We’d only need a few trucks to deliver our food and giant TVs, and maybe a doctor from time to time.